Marquee matchup tonight between Kansas, Kentucky
NEW ORLEANS – Jayhawks or Wildcats, take your pick. Either can make a case for this being “their” year.
For Kansas, a season that started with low expectations keeps getting better, filled with high-wire comebacks and an inescapable feeling that this was simply meant to be.
For Kentucky, a cadre of NBA-caliber players have had the word “champion” practically imprinted on their chests since they gathered at Rupp Arena for the season’s first practice.
They meet tonight for the NCAA championship, a history-filled matchup between the two winningest programs in college basketball history. This is the one-and-dones at Kentucky vs. juniors and seniors at Kansas; Anthony Davis vs. Thomas Robinson in a front-court battle of All-Americans; a title-game coaching rematch between John Calipari and Bill Self.
Kentucky (37-2), in search of its eighth national title but its first since 1998, has five, maybe six, players who will be playing in the NBA soon. Most are freshmen and sophomores. None are better than Davis, the 6-foot-10 freshman who had 18 points, 14 rebounds and five blocks in Kentucky’s 69-61 win over Louisville in the semis.
“Anthony Davis is a great player, but he’s not Superman,” Self said.
As he has all year and all tournament, Calipari has not so much defended as explained his coaching philosophy, which is to go after the very best players and not demand they graduate, but only that they play team basketball for whatever amount of time they spend at Kentucky.
“I don’t like the rules,” Calipari said. “I want Anthony to come back and be my point guard next year. It’s really what I want. There’s only two solutions to it. Either I can recruit players who are not as good as the players I’m recruiting or I can try to convince guys who should leave to stay for me.”
He won’t do either. By pulling no punches, the coach finds himself working with the most talent – Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist are likely lottery picks, while Terrence Jones, Marquis Teague and Doron Lamb are among the others with first-round potential.
Calipari is a win away from the first national title of a stormy and controversial career.
Oddsmakers have Kentucky as a 6.5-point favorite to seal the deal this year against Kansas.
“Doesn’t bother us,” Kansas guard Tyshawn Taylor said. “They’ve got high expectations, and they had a great year so the expectations should be high. What we think, though, is that we match up with them well. We feel confident going into this game.”
And why not?
Though the talent level may not be as strong as Kentucky’s from top to bottom, the Jayhawks (32-6) get more reinforcement every game that anything is possible.
Early in the season, Kansas fell to 7-3 after an ugly unexpected home loss to Davidson.
“I was a little frustrated because I thought that we were underachieving, underperforming,” Self said.
The Jayhawks righted the ship behind the development of Robinson, a role player during his first two years in college. He was allowed to blossom when he got regular playing time this season and is averaging 17.7 points and 11.7 rebounds a game. He was the only unanimous AP All-American and was in the conversation, along with Davis, in most of the player-of-the-year voting.
These teams met in November at Madison Square Garden, a 75-65 Kentucky victory in the second game of the season. There wasn’t much conversation about that one Sunday.